Anneli

Hello, I'm looking for some information on teaching in Australia and wondered if anyone could help me? I'm a British citizen and am currently doing a PGCE in primary teaching, to be finished early July. Does anyone know if it is possible to do your NQT year in Australia? Any info greatly appreciated, thanks!

Katherined0

I'm not sure, but am fairly sure you need QTS before coming to aus and therefore need to complete your nqt year in the UK.....
Not sure where you want to teach but for NSW, it could be worth contacting either:
http://www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au/
or https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/index.htm
and you will probably find people better qualified than me to answer your questions.
Good Luck in your quest!

Libby1971

Hi

If you are planning to be the applicant for the visa, you need to have QTS and therefore need to have completed your NQT year in the UK. Plus you also need to have 3 years experience before you submit your application.

Either way, you need to complete your NQT year in the UK. If you don't complete it now, and try to come back and do it next year, you won't be able to be a teacher.

Libby

GillyG

I think you may find that some degrees have QTS attached to them, mine did, I am in my NQT year now and defo have QTS! From what I have researched, you only need 1 year's teaching experience before you can apply for your trades recognition (first part of the application process) and then as long as that comes back positive you can than apply for your visa. Depending on the type of visa you apply for you usually need 100 points (if you have a family member/state/job sponsorship) or 120 points if you are going totally independently. I was at the Emigrate show last year and was practically offered a state sponsorship by WA just after completing my BA (hons) in Primary Education and Teaching...that was untill they realised my degree was only 3 years and to teach in Aus you must have studied 4 years of tertiary education Have a look on the teaching forum, loads of info on there.

AndyR1976

Hiya, I have sent you a PM.

My girlfriend is a primary teacher - we moved out here last August (I'm from here anyway).

She did a PGCE at Canterbury and completed her NQT year in the UK the year before we moved to Aust but because we did not know what year we would move over to Aust she looked into all this NQT year - and I am pretty sure she found a way that you can do it in NSW but there were some conditions attached.

There are other isues to consider - we are both dual citizens so she didn';t have to worry about getting a visa or anything...

Getting a teaching job in Australia (in a nice area) is pretty tough as it is (there is a 8-10 year wait for full time primary teaching jobs on the NSW central coast for example) so you may want to consider whether its worth coming out here to try and do your NQT year, might make it just that bit harder to get a job....

I have sent you my girlfriends contact details as she has done the PGCE, NQT, move to Australia process and she might be able to help you out alittle more with details and other questions!

Good luck!

AndyR1976

Yeah, but if Anneli is stuydying a PGCE then presumably she would have had to do a 3 year degree before hand (3 years degree plus 1 year PGCE = 4 years) - same as what my girlfriend did and it was accepted fine.

GillyG

Yeah that's what I was saying, a 3 year degree in Primary Teaching and Education isn't good enough but any random degree and a PGCE is fine...I love Australia but that rule sucks!!!! Can't see the logic in it at all

AndyR1976

Mmmmm....since when does logic come into government policy...?????

Swerv-o

Not necessarily true. In NSW, if your degree doesn't have the components required to teach your chosen subject according the the Department of Education and Training, then you will have to complete additional modules before you can gain registration to teach in public schools. Teaching is far more linked in to what you studied at degree level here, and it is much less easy to do a 'random' degree, then specialise with a PGCE into teaching. You should check with the dept of Education for the state you are planning to travel to as to their exact requirments.

As far as I am aware, completion of the induction (NQT) year is not a requirement to gain teacher registration (in NSW anyway). However, it may well be that you will require the work experience it provides in order to gain your residency. If you were granted residency independently of your teaching qualification - for instance if you qualified as a teacher after you gained it, then I don't believe that you need to complete the NQT year to gain registration.

Getting a job with no experience however may be another matter entirely...


S

Libby1971

Gillg I am sure someone will have told you by now that if you can bear to spend a year on your masters degree then that equates to 4 years study and you get in with that.

Someone mentioned the degree has to be linked to the subject being taught and that is right. Your skills get assessed by everyone - the skills assessment board for immigration, the Teacher Registration Board, the Govt Dept of Education in the state you move to as well as the payroll dept of the same govt office as well as the school that you go to if it is a private school!!!

If you are applying for a visa as a teacher you must hold QTS. Most PGCE courses have you leave with NQT i.e.Newly Qualified Teacher. Full Qualified Teacher Status is only awarded after you have successfully completed your NQT year. If you fail this year, you cannot teach in UK again. Aussie rules say that you have to have 3 years experience in the profession that you are claiming as your skilled occupation so NQT year plus 2 more. You have to have that experience at the time of submitting your application - you cannot say that you will have it by the time you enter the country, Immig don't like that. The rules also state that the 3 years have to be full time employment - you cannot claim the equivalent, even on state sponsorship. A friend of mine had to go back to work for that.

If, you choose to come here on another visa and be a teacher, well I am not sure what the rules are. If you haven't worked as one, they may ask you to do some training again. I do know that the UK does not recognise Aussie teaching qualifications and so teachers from Oz have to go back to the Graduate Teacher Training Scheme and get paid according to that and then they move on up the scale after that, they go back to being NQTs as well.

Aussie schools also like you to have a combination of subjects that you can offer at high school so expand your repertoire now if you are still in the UK.

It may be that an immigration agent can give you some advice - some will give you some advice for free if you are deciding what to do. Either way, have a look at the immigration dept guidelines on this, they may have changed. We thought we only had to do 18 months experience and then found out it was 3 years so had to stay a bit longer.

Andy is right to say perm jobs are hard to find, they are gold dust. We are in South Australia and they were sponsoring primary school teachers - but there is no work. I know 6 people off the top of my head who are all primary school teachers who don't have a job. And they are all looking. School teachers are wanted in country areas although there are due to be lots of retiring teachers in the next few years, what do we do till then?

Libby

Katherined0

A random degree + PGCE definitely wont allow you to teach. I have 10 years of primary experience but because my undergrad degree was in psychology the powers that be have decided I can not teach.

AndyR1976

My girlfirend has a 3 year 'random degree' - sociology - and a PGCE and had no problems with the approvals process....

Actually, she had her approval to teach before we left the UK (took about 6 weeks) and within 4 weeks of arriving had copmleted all the other paperwork and courses and was teaching temp in schools

Unless they consider 'sociology' not to be a random degree but somehow alligned with the teaching profession..?? I understand it has some applications to teaching but its not like she has a straight-forward science/history/maths degree.....

This is for NSW

AndyR1976

Just to add - I have heard some wierd random stories....

Like, my girlfriends PGCE was for 3-11 year olds.... Whilst the Dept of Education considers this acceptable for teaching primary up to year 6 (and she can now even teach High School), the Dept of Community Services (who look after child-care) will not give her approval to work in childcare....

Yet we know people in QLD with almost identical qualifications and experience, who can work in childcare, but not in schools....

silly really!!

Swerv-o

If you have a look at the NSW DET website, you can find the listing of what is considered appropriate undergrad course content and how it relates to what you propose to teach. It is a complex table, and they specify virtually exactly what modules you need to have studied.

I have a BSc in Engineering Science, and am a qualified Physics teacher in the UK. Here I can't teach for a number of reasons -

1. I did my PGCE at a college of Further Ed and not a Uni
2. I don't have any Biology or chemistry modules in my degree
3. I don't have enough pure Physics in my degree

Now the first two I could have understood, but the third point annoys me, as I also have a PhD in Physics, but they won't consider that when assessing my qualifications, as it is postgraduate and not undergraduate.

And it's not as if there is a huge glut of Physics teachers hanging around looking for jobs either. It seems that there is no flexibility in application of the guidelines, and that more often than not they are willing to cut their noses off to spite their faces, rejecting good quality teachers that they can really not afford to let pass by.


S

Anneli

Thanks to everyone who replied to my query! You've all been very helpful and informative. Seems like it would be pretty difficult/impossible to do my NQT year in Australia with full QTS as the outcome. Never mind....good to know that it would be possible to teach in Australia once I've done my NQT and have full QTS. Thanks again everyone!